The place: Herbst Theater. The time 8:40 p.m., Christine Brewer singing Joseph Marx's "Selige Nacht." When she came to the end of "At the open window the summer wind listened," somebody kicked my seat, forcefully. I turned around, and noticed that the rest of the audience was looking around too. Given the location, there was instant realization that a quake just hit, a jolt I estimated under 4 on the Richter scale. (Found out later that this latest greeting from the Hayward Fault was a healthy, but non-destructive 4.2). On the stage: no sign of alarm or even of notice of anything being out of order. Craig Rutenberg's pearly tones kept flowing from the piano, Brewer sang "and carried away the peacefulness of our breathing into the moonlight," and she sang and sang (und Das Ochslein brullte, das Kindlein schrie, Die heiligen drei Konige sangen... - wrong song, but that kind of feeling of continuity). After intermission, Brewer - in one of her informal and utterly charming asides to the audience - said that she didn't notice the quake, Rutenberg told her about it in the break. Now about that score of 10: it's true, because it was a heavenly recital, but technically the performance was not "flawless" - the soprano used the score, at times rather frequently, and a few notes were not "perfect." To relieve critics of the trouble, Brewer's last encore was Celius Dougherty's "Review," a hilarious parody of the critique of a vocal recital, with every reviewer cliche used and pilloried, in a marvelously understated manner. To hell with pedants, Hanslicks, and Beckmeisters: this concert charmed and moved and enchanted and entertained and some passages carried one into another realm. It was a 10. I've heard more passionate performances of Wagner's "Wesendonck Lieder," but none with a more consistent, overarching, cycle-long legato than Brewer's. Crystalline diction, unshowy simplicity, and Rutenberg's elegant, supportive accompaniment - it all came together. Richard Strauss' "Wiegenlied" and "Befreit" were glowing, with tenderness and un-gushing feeling. Marx's earthqake song and "Hat dich die Liebe beruhrt" did what almost every single Marx performance does, raising the obvious question: why not more of this superb composer? And yet, if the first half was a 10, the second half - all in English - turned into a veritable 11. John Carter's "Cantata," three songs from Harold Arlen's "St. Louis Woman" Rutenberg shifting from Wagner to blues without breaking a sweat, our beloved Isolde once again positing that she will love us as nobody loved us, come rain or come shine. Four songs were offered as a "Flagstat set" because the great soprano sang them at most of her recitals: A. Walter Kramer's "Now like a lanter," Barber's "Rain has fallen," Midred Lund Tyson's "Sea moods," and Edwin McArthur's "Night" - with time stopping on the last few bars, Brewer (and Rutenberg) floating notes in the air without beginning or end, producing for the listener a smile through tears. Let the earth rock, let critics sneer and resist falling under the spell of true magic - a 10.5 for Brewer and Rutenberg. Janos Gereben/SF www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask] *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html